Letters to Pink: Clarkson's career is not dead

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, August 30, 2007

Photo: MIKE SEGAR

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Musician Kelly Clarkson performs during the Live Earth New York concert in East Rutherford, New Jersey, July 7, 2007. Former U.S. vice president Al Gore and global partners are staging the Live Earth concerts held on seven continents simultaneously to raise awareness of environmental issues. REUTERS/Mike Segar (UNITED STATES)
Ran on: 07-15-2007 Ran on: 09-02-2007
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Musician Kelly Clarkson performs during the Live Earth New York concert in East Rutherford, New Jersey, July 7, 2007. Former U.S. vice president Al Gore and global partners are staging the Live Earth concerts ... more

Photo: MIKE SEGAR

Letters to Pink: Clarkson's career is not dead

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Clarkson's Career is not dead

Editor - In the July 15 Datebook, Joel Selvin erroneously claims that singer Kelly Clarkson's career is in "free fall." This is preposterous. Selvin writes that "My December," Clarkson's latest album, "arrived stillborn ... dead before it even had a chance." The facts simply do not match Selvin's need to construct a dramatic story of a mishandled, slumping career. Clarkson's CD peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 200 album chart and is the fifth most popular CD in the country. Meanwhile, any visit to the supermarket confirms Clarkson's continued popularity and success - she's on the cover of many current magazines, and it isn't because her career is in "free fall."

Time will tell if Clive Davis' pooh-poohing of her album's commercial prospects is a sign of prescience or senility, but the first single, "Never Again," did make the Top 10, if not No. 1, a position many performers (and their record companies) would be quite happy to have reached.

In addition, the album has been very well received by critics who have appreciated its passion and authenticity. Finally, Clarkson appeared happy and vibrant during her recent Live Earth performance and delivered a solid set, one of the best of the day. Despite canceling her summer tour, she is hardly in what the sour Selvin describes as a "dark place."

Rude! Girl! Gone!

France's healthy system

Editor - I stopped reading Mick LaSalle's movie reviews a long time ago because my experience was that they were usually worthless. So I didn't catch his idiocies anent "Sicko" until July 15 (Ask Mick LaSalle).

If LaSalle really wanted to know what the French pay for their medical services, all he had to do is check the Internet. It's all there. For the employed, employers pay 13 percent of wages, employees 7 percent. For the unemployed, the state pays the bills. The United States spends 13.7 percent of its gross domestic product while France spends 9.8 percent, and everyone in France is covered while somewhere around 45 million Americans aren't, and everyone in France can go to a specialist of his or her choice, while most insured Americans can't.

There is no long wait for any kind of treatment in France, while here your friendly insurance company will happily stall until you die so that it doesn't have to pay you anything. These are just some of the reasons the World Health Organization ranks the French health-care system No. 1 in the world and ours No. 37, behind, among others, those of Morocco, Oman and Costa Rica.